The Sea Stallion was lying on the opposite side of the bridge and the royal families gathered at the Viking ship, where skipper Carsten Hvid and head of boat yard at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Søren Nielsen, were raedy to greet the queen, prince Henrik and former queen Anne Marie.
The Royal family was eager to learn
The crew on board the chalup had agreed to let the skipper from the Sea Stallion invite the royal family on board and sail them back to the royal ship.
The royal family agreed. The kitchen and navigation boxes were covered with skins for the queen and former queen to sit on. Prince Henrik stood at the rutter - and then the entire crew were allowed on board by security.
”Former queen Anne-Marie were very interested in our route and how the following ship could help us evacuate sick and cold crew members. She asked about the age difference on board and was told that the youngest crew member is seventeen and the oldest sixty five. She wanted to know about the gender difference between men and women and was told a third part of the crew is women. I also told her that we have sixty oars on board, but we normally only use half,” says Solveig, the cook on board.
”They are almost Danish”
”Both Margrethe and Anne-Marie wanted to know how the crew got any sleep during rough sailing, what we are eat on board and how we keep warm at night,” Solveig continues.
”Carsten, our skipper, informed the royal quests, that the crew is primarely Danish, but that there's ten different nationalities on board - that we even have a crew member all the way from Tasmania. The queen answered with at smile; ' they are almost Danish’,” says Solveig.
While the Sea Stallion rowed toward ’Dannebrog’, steersman Søren Nielsen offered prince Henrik to take the rutter.
”First he said no, but when I asked for the second time, he agreed and sat down at the rutter,” says steersman Vibeke, who was side by side the queen.
The king of Denmark
”Our Norwegian steersman Kjetil, didn't know much about the Danish royal family and asked prince Henrik if he was married to queen Magrete. When the prince said yes, Kjetil asked; ”are you the king of Denmark then?”, and again the pince said yes and then Kjetil offered him a sweet.
Søren and prince Henrik also talked about dragon boats, which they both own. Prince Henrik told Søren, that he recently had participated in a dragon boat championship and asked if Søren also was competing.
Happy for the time off
”All of our quest recieved our book about the ship and Anne Marie got an english version for her husband. I was standing next to the queen and suddenly she pointed towards the sail and asked who had been in charge of the colouring. And that made me really happy. I told the queen that the sail was coloured with ochre and with an tecnic used in Venice, Italy. She liked the fact that we used a coluring method known today but with a long tradition,” says Vibeke.
”Our qroyal quest seemed happy to get some time off in their busy schedule. When we reached the royal ship ’Dannebrog’ and Margrethe, Henrik and Anne-Marie had to leave the Sea Stallion, we thanked them for sailing with us and they replied by thanking us. I think they enjoyed the sail,” steersman Vibeke says finishing off.
The crew on board the Sea Stallion greet the crew from the chalup and ’Dannebrog’ for letting us sail Her Majesty Queen Magrete, Prince Henrik and former Queen from Spangereid and back to theroyal ship.